A call home
by MrsBCumberbatchIwish
Summary: Jackie receives a long-distance call and realises that time can pass slowly. Set after the Doctor dances


She turned the key in the lock and opened the rickety old front door, she had meaning to get a new one fitted but she had never got round to it. The flat had been broken into several times in the past few months and now there was wasn't a lot left to nick so there didn't seem much point in going to the expense of a new one.

It had been a long day and her bones were aching. She plonked the bag of groceries on the floor and switched on the light, it cast a gloomy glow over her last remaining possessions. It was so quiet. She had never got used to that, in all the time that had passed she had never got used to the place being so still.

She bolted the door behind her and took the shopping into the kitchen. She surveyed the scene, the place was a mess, she decided that she really must get round to tidying up, who knew when she was going to have visitors again? She smiled to herself, it would be nice to have visitors again, she could cook shepherds pie and listen to the latest gossip. It was so long since she had cooked for more than herself, she wondered if she still remembered how to do it.

She wandered into the sitting room and sat down her favourite armchair. Her muscles in her legs were screaming out, she rubbed them gently with her rough hands hoping to dull the ache but gave up when it didn't get any better. She lifted her weary legs up on to the pouffe in front of the chair and switched on the telly with the remote control.

It was the middle of Corrie before she noticed that the red light on the answering machine was flashing. It wasn't often that she received calls anymore, most of her friends were gone, there wasn't many people left to call her. A smile played on her lips, she would wait until the break before she listened to them, she didn't get much enjoyment anymore and she would savour this little drop for as long as she possibly could.

It took a lot of restraint for her not to press the big green button on the machine. It was distracting her from what was happening on screen but she managed it. Finally it was the ad break, she turned away from the latest ringtone advert and pressed the start button on the small white machine.

"Jackie, it is Karen" A voice said as it drifted out of the machine, "Don't forget we are going to bingo tomorrow."

Damn it, she thought, she had forgotten. She had always been a scatterbrain but now it was worse than ever.

"I'll meet you outside the bingo hall at 6pm. Do not be late"

She settled back in her seat. Didn't that woman realise she was always late, she didn't mean to be, but no matter how very hard she tried she couldn't ever seem to be on time.

The machine beeped and she returned her attention back to the on screen antics of the residents of Coronation Street.

"Mum…mum are you there?"

She sat bolt upright. It had been a while since she had heard that voice but it was unmistakable

"Damn it" The voice continued. "I never seem to be able to ring when you are at home. I'm sure that is something I get off you"

Jackie smiled to herself. Yes that was definitely something that she had inherited off her.

"Well I just wanted to ring and say hi. I know it has been awhile since I called or visited and I'm sorry"

Yes, it had been a while. It had been years. She wondered if her only daughter actually knew or realised that.

"We are somewhere…well we are somewhere, though I am not too sure where. It has been amazing, Mum, really amazing. We have just been to 1941. I got to see London at the height of the blitz, can you believe it? Grandma used to tell me about it when I was young but I actually got to see it. I also got to hang thousands of feet above London from a barrage balloon with a union jack across my chest in a middle of an air raid ow…What did you do that for?

Jackie laughed. She could imagine that The Doctor had just elbowed her. She had made him promise once that he would look after Rose, so of course he wouldn't want her saying what scrapes she had been getting herself into.

"But I'm fine. I'm ok. We have got a new member of our crew. He is called Jack, he is a former time agent from the 51st century. You'd like him. Say hi Jack"

She listened intently as the phone was passed over and a new voice came on the line.

"Hello Mrs Tyler, I can't wait to meet you. I bet you are as beautiful as your daughter. I bet you look more like sisters than mother and daughter"

She put a hand over her mouth to stifle a giggle. God, if he could see her right now he wouldn't think that. She ran a hand through her greying hair, she had changed so much since she had last seen her daughter, would Rose recognise her when she came home.

Rose came back on the line

" Oh my god, that was so clichéd. You should see the doctor's face. It is a picture"

Jackie heard the older man say Rose's name

"Okay, Okay…I have to go. We are going somewhere, but we will come back for a visit soon. I'll bring Jack with us. You can make shepherds pie and we can all sit down together…Do not roll your eyes Doctor. You can do domestic for once and sit down and have tea with my mother…So like I said. I have to go. I will call again in a couple of days. Look after yourself Mum"

There was silence and Jackie wondered if she had hung up.

"This tape will self-destruct in 10 seconds"

She listened to her daughters' young carefree laugh. It was the sound that she had longed to hear for ages

"I have always wanted to do that…Okay, okay I am getting off…I love you, Mum. Goodbye"

Silent tears ran down Jackie Tylers' face as she listened to beep that announced the end of the tape, she brushed them away with the back of her wrinkled hand and picked up the silver-framed photo that sat next to the answer phone. It was her most prized possession. The glass was cracked, the silver chipped but it was the thing that meant the most to her.

The picture that was in the frame was one of Rose. It had been taken on her 19th Birthday, not long before she had gone on her travels. It had been 40 years since then.

She sat back in her chair and did the thing she did at least once each day. She closed her eyes and slowly counted to ten. It wasn't only Rose that had learnt about time. Jackie now knew that ten seconds, ten seconds that had never mattered much to her when she was younger, that she never felt pass, could in fact last a lifetime.


End file.
